This hockey homecoming might not quite land on your radar, but expect Marian Gaborik’s return to Minnesota to be an interesting one. Gaborik spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Minnesota Wild. In that time, when he was healthy, he was the one dynamic offensive presence the Wild could count upon when he was in the lineup. During his time with Minnesota, five times he scored 30 or more goals and provided the Wild with the sort of gamebreaking player that was hard to find during Jacques Lemaire’s defense-first tenure with the Wild.

The flip side of that dynamic coin during his time in Minnesota is that Gaborik was often injured. In only four seasons, Gaborik was able to play 70 or more games in the regular season with the Wild. In those other four, twice he played 65 games, and then had two seasons where he played 48 and 17 games. When Gaborik was out of the lineup, the team’s offensive success often went with him. Enter the anger of the Minnesota fan. Bryan Reynolds of Hockey Wilderness tells us how he’d greet Gaborik’s return to town.

Sure Gaborik will be looking to remind people that he can score, and perhaps give those in Minnesota who doubted him a good “Shove it” kind of evening. Who would ever question his legacy here. Oh, yeah. Me. The great Gaby can jump in a lake as far as I’m concerned, but I know many Wild fans enjoyed his time here, and miss him dearly. Pff. Whatever.

“I can’t control how they are going to act,” Gaborik said of the Wild fans. “Hopefully it’s going to be pleasant. I think I’ve done a lot of good things there and had good success as an expansion team, so hopefully it’s going to be positive.”

Gaborik’s departure from Minnesota is a funny thing. He wasn’t run out of town, he left as an unrestricted free agent. It was clear that the new Wild management wasn’t eager to keep having the team’s fate lie in Gaborik’s health and opted to go in a different direction. Former GM Doug Risebrough had opportunities to make a deal for Gaborik when it appeared clear the organization had reached their breaking point in relying on him as well as having Gaborik turn down contract extension offers from the team.

It stinks to have a guy who was successful leave town, especially under such angst-filled circumstances. Gaborik will get booed and it’s awkwardly unfair to him that he is. He dazzled the Wild fans when they didn’t have a lot else to get excited about. At the same time, being off the ice more than on it his last few seasons and having the team be unsuccessful can leave you feeling empty. Seeing Gaborik head out of town for big money and the big city of New York can leave you feeling empty. As for Gaborik, Wild fans who are booing him might just be upset that he wasn’t around last year to score 42 goals for them last season.